As the latest iteration of Jeff Wayne’s audio classic flung open its doors to unsuspecting Londoners for a multi-sensory VR journey, Nick Joy caught up with the man himself on press night, as well as its lead performers Anna-Marie Wayne, Tom Brittney and Carrie Hope Fletcher to find out how it feels to see yourself as a 3D character, the technology involved, and a tease of future tours.

 

Without wanting to go too deep into spoiler territory (here’s my review which hopefully gives away enough but not too much) the 2019 version of Jeff Wayne’s perennial favourite asks it actors to do things very differently, an experience that the performers shared with us. But first, Jeff.

Jeff, we’ve just seen another round of survivors leaving the experience, cheering. That must be pretty satisfying for you. At what point is you decide that the records, the tours, the audiobook were not enough?

It’s been an evolving thing for years, not just because of the arena tours. Every so often in life you see things in a different way and it sets a new tone, and in this case it was entertainment and performance. It’s was mid-way through our last tour, at the end of last year, when we met up with Dot Dot Dot, who are producers of award-winning multi-sensory experiences, and a fantastic group of people. It just came together as an idea to take the best of what they do and take my musical work and reinterpret it in their world. And that’s how it started.

How soon after the tour did you move on to this?

They actually began production when I was coming to the end of my tour, so literally the day after, I joined up with them for a 12-13 hour meeting. I live in Hertfordshire and I’ve got four studios, so with my team we were making the music, the sound design and recording voices where appropriate. The whole production of the audio then merged with the work that they were doing, sometimes I would get back comments like ‘can you do this?’ to move it in a certain direction because of the way the visuals were going, and other natural evolutions you’d expect in a big project.

[We’re interrupted by two giants jets of steam, shot from the Martian Fighting Machine that’s suspended above us, indicating that it’s time for the next set of volunteers to enter the experience.]

Hello! There’s some steam cleaning going on there – you don’t get charged any extra (laughs)!

What do you think your father (producer of the original LP, Jerry Wayne) would have made of this?

I think he would have loved it. He was a very popular performer and singer in the mid ’40s to ’50s [He played the original Sky Masterton in the London version of Guys and Dolls] and when we partnered for War of the Worlds we always said that when it came out, if it could find an audience – and ‘if’ was the word – then maybe I could get it into the West End or maybe I could conduct a concert version, never realising what this one day might turn in to. He would have been proud, not just of where I’ve gotten to with it, but all the people who have given their heart and soul creatively.

Could you ever see yourself getting bored of War of the Worlds? Surely there’s been a day when you’ve thought ‘I really don’t want to conduct Forever Autumn any more’?

It hasn’t happened yet! Conducting for me is probably the most exhilarating experience. I’m a composer and a producer, but for me the highest level of energy is when I get up on the stage and conduct. With the exception of a 20-minute interval, it’s a continuous play. It doesn’t stop. We do a tune or two, turn to the audience and chat or whatever, but then it goes all the way through. By the end of the first half I’m soaking wet, because I never stop moving. I’m kind of like a hovercraft, floating around everywhere, jumping about.

For those people who have bought the record and watched the live show, what does this new immersive experience offer them?

You’re entering a completely different world, because you as the audience are taken back to 1898, right at the very beginning of the invasion, and it’s your job to defend humanity against the Martians. You are immersed, you are involved. So that’s the starting point. The second is that you’re in whole new dynamics, from the highest technology sequences to the smallest things – some of the amazing touches – that I hope will entertain people. That is a new direction, a new way of telling that same story.

From my own perspective it felt like I was experiencing the story in a completely new way – a new layer if you like.

Yes, that’s a perfect way of describing it. The heart of my music score is still there, so hopefully it sounds familiar, but I’ve also done new atmospheric music and sound design to connect the sections that are not in the same order as the album. There’s enough that’s familiar, but it’s not another live rendition. That will still stand. I’m going to be touring UK arenas again in 2020/2021 and we’re waiting for dates to go to Australia, New Zealand and other countries. That part of me, as long as I can jump and groove a bit on the stage and podium, that won’t stop. I love it too much.

That’s great news. I thought I’d read somewhere that the previous tour was your farewell.

We actually thought that 2014 was going to our last arena tour, and it was actually publicised that way, but that was only because I’d signed a contract to do a season in the West End and then go around other countries. It did very well and got extended by a month, and then our promoters said ‘Are you aware that next year you’re going to have the 40th anniversary from the release of the double album? You can’t ignore that.’ I hadn’t been thinking about it, but I couldn’t resist it.

Please don’t stop touring, and do come back to my local venue, the Bournemouth International Centre.

Ah, that’s where we did our very first show in 2006. I had a great feeling about it because two of our four children share the same birthday as that show, April 13th. A good omen!

Just contrasting that first show in 2006 with what I saw in 2018, it has grown and grown in sophistication. 

Absolutely. We used to call it a ‘Three truck show’ because that’s what we needed to transport all the equipment. Last year it was six trucks.

 

And with that, Jeff is led to other interviewers and I get the chance to speak to his daughter, Anna-Marie Wayne. Anna-Marie initially appeared in filmed content as Carrie, George’s fiancée, for the War of the Worlds concert tour, and this was expanded to her appearing on stage in the 2018 tour in a poignant reprise of Forever Autumn. 

 

Last time I saw you it was on stage as Carrie in the live show. We see a very different, post-battle Carrie here, rendered in 3D. What sort of different challenges did that present to you?

It was very different. The character has been tweaked quite a bit. In this version she’s a journalist in her own right, she’s very resourceful, resilient, a real survivor. We filmed it in two different ways for my role. One was the traditional green screen and one was full volumetric capture – 360 degrees coverage with hundreds of cameras. So you just had to be able to imagine everything because there was nothing there, no sets or anything. We had some time constraints, and even though there’s a really emotional scene at the end it had to be delivered within a certain amount of time – you couldn’t let it breathe in the way that you wanted. It was fun. I like being able to immerse myself in my imagination.

Fans of War of the Worlds have grown up with it for last 40 years, but for most of us it was just a treasured album. For you I guess it was a very different experience? And could you even imagine we’d be here in 2019?

I know. It’s incredible. When I look at this bar and restaurant that we’re sitting in – the fantastic design and the artwork – it’s amazing seeing it come to life in this way.

I’m going to assume that you’ve been through the experience. What was it like seeing the virtual and 3D versions of yourself? 

It’s always very weird watching yourself anyway, but this was even that much stranger, because at that reunion scene at the end you can almost go around yourself. You get to see yourself in a way that you don’t do normally. It was fun.

Last year a longer audio version of The War of the Worlds was released, with Carrie’s role substantially expanded, narrated by you. That must have been thrilling?

I loved that. I was playing with some amazing actors – I was Michael Sheen’s wife. The character of Carrie developed a lot further, and was probably a lot closer to this version here than you saw on the arena tour. Such an incredible cast. I do quite a lot of voiceover work anyway and I really enjoy it.

And when you did the audiobook was it you on your own in a studio, or could you interact with other actors? 

I narrated two of the episodes out of the ten, and that narration I did myself in the booth, but with the other scenes we had the full cast of actors, and that was such fun. I’ve done another audiobook where I’ve voiced all the characters myself and I was alone in this booth day after day, hour after hour [laughs]!

What do you think is the enduring appeal of The War of the Worlds?

I think it’s a mix of things. Firstly it’s the sci-fi genre that it’s in – the story by H G Wells is incredible and relevant to not only its time period, but also to today. It deals with invasion, and whether today that’s terrorists or global warming, it’s a tale of survival. That will always resonate, and with my dad’s album he always wanted to stay true to H G Wells – to keep it in Victorian England – and the music takes it to another level for fans of that story. It’s all those things combined.

There’s a scene in the theatre near the beginning of the experience where the seats are shaking from The Eve of the War blasting out – I had goosebumps on my arms. It reminded me of my mum shouting upstairs, ‘turn that racket down’!

Ha ha! All of us are so used to listening to it blaring out, shouting ‘louder, louder’!

 

For the interviews with Carrie Hope Fletcher and Tom Brittney, please click here

‪Tickets start from £49.50 and are available to book now at www.dotdot.london/TWOTW.

‪With thanks to Katie and Ellen at Kallaway Ltd for arranging the interviews.